February 2, 2012 - Ava DuVernay won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival for her drama Middle Of Nowhere — making her the first black woman to take home the honour.
Publicist, writer, director, consultant, producer, Ava DuVernay is a film/TV vet as well as founder of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement. Her documentary This Is The Life also screened at the 2008 ReelWorld Film Festival.
Middle of Nowhere follows a wife after her husband is incarcerated, a tough topic that Ava says, “affects black and brown communities disproportionately.” She also stressed in her acceptance speech that it was important that her film be seen beyond the film festival and for “filmmakers of color to see one another’s films and have them seen.”
Middle Of Nowhere was picked up for distribution last week by Participant Media, which also distributed An Inconvenient Truth, The Help, and Waiting For Superman.
Ava talks about the film:
Her acceptance speech (1:32 mark):
